About Jeff

Jeff Alexander

Jeff Alexander
Director of Rumble Roller Certifications with 20 years experience as a personal trainer and 10 years as a specialist in functional movement and self-care through SMR concepts. Certified by NASM (CPT, CES), FMS, ISSA (CPT, PNS), and CrossFit, he is the creator of the Alexander Method of SMR℠ and a gym owner in Southern California with his wife, Carolyn.

He has toured the USA since 2007 and more recently internationally teaching athletes & coaches how to manage their therapeutic efforts through better technique and tool selections more appropriate for their chosen sport. He’ll teach you how to better manage your self-care strategy so you can get the best results in the shortest time with the least amount of effort. Work smarter so you can recover faster and train harder.

“My wife and I own and manage a personal training and fitness consulting business called Network Fitness. We’ve based ourselves in the Irvine/Newport Beach/Costa Mesa area of Southern California since 1998. I oversee or personally conduct one-on-one personal training, group WODs, and fitness presentation seminars/workshops for groups and businesses throughout the USA and abroad. I bring to the table a wide range of accomplishments and education accumulated through my experiences in Africa and the South Pacific in the United States Marine Corps, electrical engineering studies at McNeese State University in Louisiana, academic and hands-on lessons learned in personal training and fitness therapy techniques from highly respected fitness or therapy institutions.

My speciality is self-myofascial release, a technique likened to “self-massage” that can break up contraction knots, adhesions, and trigger points to restore proper biomechanics. This new field of fitness combines the functional movement concept with the self-therapy need that so many athletes must learn if they expect to compete tomorrow as well as they do today.

I teach functional anatomy to athletes, trainers, and the average person so they can live and perform better.”

7 Responses to “About Jeff”

Thanks for the positive feedback! We’re trying to make this site better all the time, and your encouragement makes us try even harder.

If you attempt any self-therapy techniques (SMR or other)and you have any increase in pain or muscular dysfunction, then you need to see a qualified therapist to get a proper diagnosis. Not all muscle problems (trigger points, adhesions, contraction knots, etc.) can nor should they be addressed all by yourself.

Here’s a quick answer to your question:

If you apply pressure to the affected area (although it might be really uncomfortable at first) and the tightness seems to decrease along with the functional use of your leg muscles increase, then proceed to train and do your SMR homework at the same time.

Otherwise, be smart and ask someone qualified for their hands-on assistance.

By you making a large purchase of products from us, I would clearly wish to support your efforts but that would not provide you with any formal credential. However, I do provide hands-on intruction through 2-day clinics at various CrossFit and other facilities nationwide, and the list is growing. I would be happy to discuss potential dates to come to your neck of the woods and provide detailed instruction of the methods and limits of SMR.

As of now there is no formal certification necessary to teach SMR, but I do recommend knowing what you are talking about before telling your clients to do anything beyond the typical rolling out on the big foam rollers.

We’ve had clients get remarkable results from the restoration of functional range of motion possible through SMR. But not everyone has the same level of commitment to daily SMR work, so I can make no guarantees to anyone about the avoidance of surgery nor the complete restoration of performance. Sometimes the damage is too great to overcome through self-therapy methods.

I’ll call you tomorrow to discuss what is best for you, and I look forward to being of assistance if that is possible.

My wife (Val Whiting, Stanford University Sports ‘Hall of Famer’) and I own a business as well in Wilmington, Delaware. I have a couple of questions.

1. When you say that you train trainers, is that in the philosophy of using your technology to provide SMR programming for their clients?

2. Is there some type of train the trainer certification or affiliation you provide for trainers to provide SMR programming?

3. If I bought, let say, 20 of your Ultimate Packages, would I be allowed to provide SMR programming? We would love to be the prototype for this programming considering my wife gets orthorscopic surgery this Friday, January 15, 2010 to remove a bone fragment from her left shoulder. She has not been able to move her arm above her head since this summer. The long wait was to get as many opinions as possible considering she never had surgery as a professional basketball player.

Basically, it’ll be $100 per appointment to teach her what to do and where on her body to do it. It’s best if she comes to me in Irvine. Most people only need 3 or 4 sessions before they have a good enough grasp of the movements to work on their own. After that they might have some other questions that we address every couple months.

Thanks for the referral, and I look forward to working with your client!

Tendonitis in he left elbow and shoulder. She had surgery to correct it – helped a little.

Arthritis in her neck.

Carpal Tunnel in her wrists.

A lot of nerve damage in her left arm. Her arm goes completely numb, especially after lifting any weight above her head.

Rotator cuff tear

I want her to come see you, so you can educate her on how she can heal herself. What are your fees for one on one, and how do I set this up?

She loves my class, but she literally can’t do ANYTHING with her arms, or her arms are in dire pain and numb the next day. I’ve tried light wall balls, push ups from the knees, front squats only with the bar–they all leave her in agony.

I am happy to keep her limited to lower body movements, but ideally she (and I) would like to restore some mobility in that area instead. I know you are just the guy to help.

Let me know how she should best proceed, and I will direct her from there.